Fracking tests in Shafter, California is threatening agricultural activities there, media reports say.
The increasing use of hydrofracking in the region has created competition for water, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Hyraulic fracturing is a drilling technique commonly known as fracking.
Oil companies are now moving into traditionally agricultural areas like Shafter that make up one of the world’s most fertile regions but also lie above a huge untapped oil reserve called the Monterey Shale.
According to the report, the output of the North Shafter oil field and the number of wells have risen by more than 50 percent since 2010.
Now the oilmen and local farmers - shortened to “oil and ag” there- are facing a serious problem. Oil’s push into new areas and its increasing reliance on fracking uses vast amounts of water and chemicals that critics say could contaminate groundwater, the Times said.
Oil industry officials claim that the Monterey Shale could create an oil boom and even transform California into the nation’s top oil-producing state. But state lawmakers have not convinced and introduced several bills that would curtail various aspects of fracking, the report added.
Environmental groups see the lawmakers’ measures insufficient. They have sued state regulators, arguing that they have given oil companies drilling permits without subjecting them to environmental reviews.
Experts say that the fracking techniques newly used in the region involve more potent cocktails of chemicals that drillers are allowed to leave undisclosed to protect trade secrets, according to the report.
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